Startups Growth Lead (NAMER)

Our mission is to automate coding. The first step in our journey is to build the best tool for professional programmers, using a combination of inventive research, design, and engineering. Our organization is very flat, and our team is small and talent dense. We particularly like people who are truth-seeking, passionate, and creative. We enjoy spirited debate, crazy ideas, and shipping code.

About the role

We’re hiring a Startups Growth Lead (NAMER) to own Cursor’s presence in the North America startup ecosystem, with a focus on the highest-leverage pockets of adoption (for example, top-tier accelerators and founder communities that shape developer tool choice).

This is a growth role, not a program management or relationship-only role. You will set the strategy, build the ecosystem motion, and ship initiatives that make Cursor the default tool for technical founders and professional developers at startups. You’ll operate cross-functionally with Growth, Product Marketing, Brand, Community, DevRel, and Product teams, with high ownership and a bias toward action and measurement.

What you’ll do

• Own Cursor’s startup segment strategy (NAMER): define who we are prioritizing, why, and how we win, then translate that into a focused roadmap.

• Build and evolve the startup program portfolio: launch and iterate programs and motions that drive adoption, retention, and advocacy in the startup ecosystem.

• Develop strategic partnerships: build and manage relationships with accelerators, funds, communities, and platforms that compound Cursor’s distribution and credibility.

• Drive community-led and social growth: create repeatable loops that turn ecosystem presence into sustained awareness and product pull.

• Find unconventional, high-leverage channels: identify and test new distribution wedges that help Cursor become the default in the ecosystem.

• Measure impact and prove incrementality: define success metrics, set up tracking, and evaluate what worked, why it worked, and what to do next.

• Operate with strong prioritization under constraint: stay focused on the highest-leverage work even as inbound requests and partnership opportunities pile up.

• Partner cross-functionally to ship: collaborate with Brand, PMM, DevRel, Community, and Growth to execute quickly without creating drag.

What success looks like

• Cursor becomes a default choice in key startup communities and cohorts across NAMER.

• We have a clear, compounding ecosystem engine: repeatable programs, scalable partner motions, and durable community loops.

• Partnerships translate into measurable product adoption and sustained usage, not just logos or “nice-to-have” relationships.

You may be a fit if

• You have strong ecosystem credibility and a track record of driving growth outcomes, not just maintaining relationships.

• You can build from scratch: strategy → roadmap → execution → measurement → iteration.

• You have excellent judgment about where to spend time for compounding leverage (and where to say no).

• You communicate clearly and can align cross-functional teams through crisp plans, narratives, and results.

• You’re energized by high ownership, ambiguity, and moving fast.

Experience that helps

• Experience in startups ecosystem roles (accelerator, founder community, VC, partnerships) paired with hands-on operator experience driving adoption.

• History of building partner motions or programs that have clear metrics and durable flywheels.

• Comfort with measurement and experimentation, including working in imperfect attribution environments.

• Familiarity with developer audiences and how technical founders evaluate and adopt tools.

Nice to have

• Former technical founder, or deep experience working directly with technical founders and developer communities.

• Experience using ecosystem presence as a launch amplifier (major launches, announcements, partner-driven moments).

• Existing network in top-tier NAMER startup communities.